On Saturday, while taking pictures in the St. Olaf natural lands, I found these intriguing prints. While the impression is clearly of a large, three-toed animal, when I consult the guide to tracks I posted recently there just doesn't seem to be anything like that. Rather, the tracks appear to indicate a small hopping animal whose tiny forepaws land together first, creating a single print, with the larger hind feet landing separately ahead of the forepaws. This scenario is reinforced by the fact that the tracks appear almost in a straight line rather than staggered, as they would be if made by the left and right feet of a larger animal.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
More About Animal Tracks
On Saturday, while taking pictures in the St. Olaf natural lands, I found these intriguing prints. While the impression is clearly of a large, three-toed animal, when I consult the guide to tracks I posted recently there just doesn't seem to be anything like that. Rather, the tracks appear to indicate a small hopping animal whose tiny forepaws land together first, creating a single print, with the larger hind feet landing separately ahead of the forepaws. This scenario is reinforced by the fact that the tracks appear almost in a straight line rather than staggered, as they would be if made by the left and right feet of a larger animal.
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4 comments:
Guesses:
Malayan lemur (brought here as pet; escaped)
Bunny
Three-toed alien from Pluto or Saturn (see John Sayles' cult classic "The Brother from Another Planet")
The newest snowshoe design from REI.
I like the way your mind works!
Jim H's second guess is spot on. Looks like a big bunny too! They are all over my yard at the moment.
Thanks, Sandee. I never happen to catch them making the prints, so it's nice to have a confident voice speak up.
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